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Also hoping Keeper makes it to the 99% of PCs that can't run it well at the moment. The recommended PC specs are 32GB RAM and a 4080 GPU
alabtrosMyster
Member
Good for them.
Hopefully it doesn't backfire.
Hopefully it doesn't backfire.
Jaybe
Member
They noticed Asha isnt afraid to bring in new blood with her AI buddies. Which means any laggards protected under Phil and Sarah are ripe for being gutted. Got to hurry up for some unionized job protection to keep the grift going. Anything to protect their own asses for bad jobs.
I would had got rid of them long time ago. In fact, I wouldnt had even bought them in the first place. Total waste of resources. Kiln and Keeper as their latest arthouse junk. MS could had funneled all the money spent on this studio since they bought them in 2019 to something better.
They rank so low on charts, in order to see them in the big master charts you have to sign in to see the full charts. If you dont they dont even show up because their CCU is so low.
There are less people playing their games today than employed at the studio.
There could be an element of people being pissed off that other "better" studios have already been shut down or had massive layoffs but Double Fine has been unaffected, despite them kinda abandoning PS5 and PC gamers with Keeper with it having a high launch price for a short game and also having steep hardware requirements (and no PS5 version at all)
coffinbirth
Member
Gotta love the fucking retards posting Steam CCU numbers for a goddamned Gamepass game.
Except for when it's high for actually popular games, right?
Gamepass may reduce absolute numbers but it doesn't change it's performance relative to other games which are also on GP.
Jaybe
Member
Guy here thinks millions are playing Kiln and Keeper on Game Pass
coffinbirth
Member
coffinbirth
Member
Jigsaah
Gold Member
studio's are getting shut down for reason's i can't decipher. Look at bluepoint. It's like sometimes it doesn't matter what you can do....you still get canned.
I mean I like me some psychonauts, but I can't imagine with it being on gamepass, people bought this in droves. But i agree with the previous poster. Need good games that sell well to keep your job
I mean I like me some psychonauts, but I can't imagine with it being on gamepass, people bought this in droves. But i agree with the previous poster. Need good games that sell well to keep your job
epicurius-seven
Gold Member
Maybe it's -them- playing their own game.
So the game is a piece of shit? Cool, so you agree it's actually not popular and its low CCU has nothing to do with GP, because I can think of another $20 game that had high CCU but was available on it.LMAO
This isn't Call of Duty.
Spend $1 to try out this piece of shit or $20?
Red Crayon Aristocrat
Member
Double Fine are essentially the OG and the Fisher King for the "games as art" movement, Psychonauts was that flashpoint in gaming culture where a title got so much critical acclaim that it just struck people as flat out unfair it didn't also have sales that Double Fine just sorta faked it till they maked it.
It would simply bum a lot of people out of they closed and the reason I call them a Fisher King, would seem like the death of a certain seriousness Microsoft want to project about "games as art" so on and on they coast off that reputation alone.
It would simply bum a lot of people out of they closed and the reason I call them a Fisher King, would seem like the death of a certain seriousness Microsoft want to project about "games as art" so on and on they coast off that reputation alone.
coffinbirth
Member
Do you not understand that most people DEMO these types of games on GamePass prior to purchase...if at all? There's a whole shitload of people on this very site that claim this pretty regularly. Probably a safe bet to assume most Steam users have never seen hide nor hair of this game as well.
This is the most GamePass-assed game yet and I'm gonna take a wild guess the $20 game you are referring to is decidedly not.
the cuckness of double fine continues.
Double Fine Is Unionizing
The Psychonauts developer is the latest Microsoft studio to unionizeaftermath.site
shutdown in 3 2 1.
if it's not too late they need to make another point and click adventure.I'm sad to say I've not even downloaded Kiln from PC Game Pass.
I used to like Double Fine. I was really pulling for them.
Keeper and Kiln are not what I was wanting from that studio.
I wanted sharp dialog and fun characters.
though Keeper was a trip of colors. So many colors. It has no dialog.
Those people can claim whatever they like but when the numbers don't show for one game but show for others it's clear the game didn't sell on steam. You said
If it's low because steam users haven't heard of it then that is a problem itself showing GP didn't help with discovery or people didn't care about the game at all either way. Tango suffered despite doing better with HiFi Rush. You couldn't really claim "but it's a gamepass-assed game".
CuteFaceJay
Member
I do wonder why MS made the purchase to begin with?
The days of Art house video games is kinda over and the idea's these folks are trying to throw at the wall clearly isn't sticking with people. They are known for a video game that's now old enough to drink in the U.S.
The days of Art house video games is kinda over and the idea's these folks are trying to throw at the wall clearly isn't sticking with people. They are known for a video game that's now old enough to drink in the U.S.
Buggy Loop
Gold Member
so you think their pottery game not selling is an audience problem.
Yes? Of course double fine is not expecting a pottery game to set the world on fire
The gaming audience is mainstream as fuck. Kind of like Marvel movies vs art house. The gamers are equivalent and as puzzling as all those Taylor Swift top billboards. It's not just double fine, there's thousands of amazing games on Steam ignored. There's genres that closed studios like immersive sims.
Peoples in this very thread asked for Double Fine to do point and clicks, will it be a surprise to you when I say that the audience didn't show up? The genre was dead, dead Jim. Double fine took the risk of reviving it with kickstarter. It didn't do spectacular numbers like at all. Not in the sense that peoples in this thread are complaining that double fine is not a big hitter
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BlackTron
Member
You're better than this.
Astray
Member
Pre-emptive move to improve where employees would land in the case of a studio closure. It's actually laudable if it does happen too.
Buggy Loop
Gold Member
Because?
We don't need artsy devs in this industry? Tell me your logic here. It's the same mainstream « subtitles are too hard to read » dummy audience that killed off the adventure genre. Same audience that made nearly all immersive sim studios close. It's the same audience that ignore steam gems. Same audience that probably scuffs at the idea of playing Ultrakill because of the graphics. I have no respect for that audience. The argument that double fine should chase after big hitters and change their identity is equivalent to some obscure progressive rock band that should become more like Taylor Swift to chase the top billboard.
You're better than this
buddy go to steam and type in point click Adventures you'll see plenty of great Indie Point click adventure games
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
How's Kiln doing? Always thought a pottery based PvP game could be huge.
BlackTron
Member
Because?
We don't need artsy devs in this industry? Tell me your logic here. It's the same mainstream « subtitles are too hard to read » dummy audience that killed off the adventure genre. Same audience that made nearly all immersive sim studios close. It's the same audience that ignore steam gems. Same audience that probably scuffs at the idea of playing Ultrakill because of the graphics. I have no respect for that audience. The argument that double fine should chase after big hitters and change their identity is equivalent to some obscure progressive rock band that should become more like Taylor Swift to chase the top billboard.
You're better than this
If dummies think subtitles are too hard to read, fine. They can bitch all they want, and not consume that product; it's not their fault if the product fails just because they didn't buy it. Whoever its audience is, it still needs to exist. Sure, you might not make Avengers numbers with subtitles, but if you have a good product it will still fill some sort of want or need someone has. Nobody cares about what DF is pushing. Their latest game gives me vibes of "this is something I wanted to do since way back so I squeezed it out between our main games". But this is just...the game.
My logic is that you're coming from the Kathleen Kennedy school of thought "no, it's the audience who are wrong".
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
If you think of it, it's amazing how bad DF games can sell. Only one lately that sells copies is Psychonauts 2. All the rest of these Kilns and no name indie artsy games sell so few, it's hard to believe how all time peak CCUs can only be in the hundreds where the daily CCU can literally be about 10. As someone mentioned days ago, someone could probably put together an AI game and it'd do better. And that game isnt involving lots of devs and Tim Schaefer at the mound.
It's not like in order to sell a good number of copies it has to be a AAA blockbuster. You get random indie games selling well all the time and lots that can at least scrape up 1,000s of CCU despite being a forgotten game. How DF/MS backed projects cant even break 200 CCU on Steam it's like you got to purposely make a game unappealing hoping to have as few gamers playing it. These kinds of games they make barely do better than Dustborn whose peak CCU was 83.
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Buggy Loop
Gold Member
I will never respect the "gamer" audience because they've demonstrated time and time again they mostly suck. They're the Taylor Swift fans of the gaming world. Mainstream as fuck. I hope I don't have to explain this to a now niche gaming forum that should be filled with hardcore gamers?
Had Keeper and Kiln been announced by Nintendo, nobody would have blinked. Kiln is no more weird than Cubivore or other projects Nintendo has put out.
BlackTron
Member
Nintendo also has other projects. DF is behaving like dead weight.
If you're looking at it as one game in Microsoft's portfolio, it doesn't matter. But even with Nintendo, we hold individual studios accountable; if Retro Studios had gone from DK and Metroid to just Kiln with this much time lapse, we'd be docking points and mocking them.
AJUMP23
Parody of actual AJUMP23
I think we have seen this a couple time where an under-performing studios thinks the best way to protect themselves is to form a union. Unfortunately for them it will cause the studio to have increased cost, and could possibly erode performance. It also can destroy comradery if they end up with people that don't want to join, or Shaffer may have reduced influence because he is the boss and everything has to go through the rep now.
Sethbacca
Member
Sir.... have you seen this forum?
Buggy Loop
Gold Member
Ah yes, "the" reply
buddy, go look at CCUs of those games.
Here is the steam point and click adventure page curated by fans
Best of 2025
Best of 2024
Best of 2023
Best of 2022
Etc
You won't find a game in there with high CCU
nothing you would not find
demigod
not laugh at any CCU thread if it was an Xbox game
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SEGAvangelist
Member
Man, this sucks. They're gonna be done, now. Releasing 2 games no one cares about after such an awesome experience with Psychonauts 2 is certainly disappointing.
Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Ain't no way they've ever been net positive on earnings compared to cost.
I'd also doubt more than 10k people even downloaded that abomination lighthouse game off gamepass.
Peroroncino
Member
Bold move considering their flop streak
Moondoggy
Member
Microsoft only paid $13.2 million to acquire them, that's probably why they've been more tolerant.
Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Shit that's $13.2M too much. 0 dollars recouped.
diffusionx
Gold Member
Because they needed content for gamepass. They just needed to throw stuff on the service at a quarterly basis to keep people subscribed between the big games. It didn't work.
My guess is now DF gets shut down at the next layoff.
MiguelItUp
Member
I was never really into DF games, not by choice, just realized they never clicked with me. For the longest I was genuinely surprised they were still getting by. They clearly enjoy making games they want to make, which I totally respect, I just wasn't sure how long that'd work for them. Because I feel like Psychonauts 1/2, Brutal Legend, and the Costume Quest games were the only thing I heard/saw people talk about. There's so many that I haven't heard folks praise or bring up. All the best to them.
No shit, and it's only getting more and more excessive, lol. Some threads you wouldn't even imagine going in that direction somehow get there in just a few posts.
Sethbacca
Member
Half the dudes here literally just invent scenarios to become mad at. I'd block people but sometimes they provide halfway interesting content.
BigBeauford
Member
To be fair, when you combine Kiln and Keeper's CCU, you are looking at $48k per head, and Bungie's $3.6B vs. Marathons' CCU, it's $41k per head so in terms of failure, both studios arent far off.